“Our members enjoyed a fantastic week long programme of events recently as part of Members’ Week. Over 170 members took part in 12 exclusive events across all of our venues and learnt some interesting and unusual facts on our collections. For example, did you know that we own 3 of the 4 Wedgwood fireplaces in the world? I didn’t! We also found out how the Mende people in Africa represent an idealised opinion of women on a mask. One of the features is a small mouth which represents spirituality and reserved silence as opposed to a loud-mouthed gossip!

One of our most popular events was an out-of-hours viewing of the Grayson Perry exhibition, “The Vanity of Small Differences“. Pauline Rushton, Curator of Costumes and Textiles, told the story behind of each of the tapestries which sparked a very interesting and lively debate on class and taste amongst members. I was interested at how strong people’s emotional response were to both the exhibition and the talk, particularly Grayson’s comment on social class:

“More than any other factor – more than age, race, religion or sexuality – one’s social class determines one’s taste”, Grayson Perry.

What do you think – do you agree?

Other events included a tour of the Paintings Conservation Studio, a talk on the Lusitania and a Big Art event for our family members. All in all, the week was a great success with members giving us some really positive feedback saying they were made to feel very special a ‘part of a community’. They also said that they ‘will take away great memories’ and look forward to next year.”

Come and join us so you don’t miss out next year! Find out all about the benefits of becoming a member of National Museums Liverpool.

]]>http://blog.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/2014/06/fascinating-facts-and-great-memories-in-members-week/feed/0Website named as honoree in Webby awards 2014http://blog.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/2014/04/website-named-as-honoree-in-webby-awards-2014/
http://blog.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/2014/04/website-named-as-honoree-in-webby-awards-2014/#commentsWed, 09 Apr 2014 10:51:43 +0000http://blog.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/?p=4842We are delighted that our website has been chosen as honoree by this year’s Webby awards, in their cultural institutions’ website category. With over 12,000 entries to the Webbys, this is no mean feat!

We redesigned the site last year, trying to make it easier to use and better looking. We think it’s a bold and beautiful design and much clearer than it used to be and it sounds like the Webby’s agree.

In Liverpool in November 2013 museums and organisations that believe in social justice formed a new alliance.The Social Justice Alliance for Museums (SJAM), is the creation of National Museums Liverpool, working with like-minded museums services in the UK and abroad.

One of the founder international members of SJAM is Fundacion Litoral , a non profit organization based in Rosario, Argentina. Here Susana Meden from Fundacion Litoral, explains about the plans for a new Museum in Argentina and why her organisation was so keen to sign up for SJAM.

Susana: “A few years ago, the president of its board of trustees – Mr Guillermo Whpei- encouraged his team to start planning a Museum for Democracy. The idea began to unfold and now is an ongoing project, involving me and other enthusiastic professionals who are looking forward to opening next year.

“The purpose that drives us is to help build a more democratic society. We are creating a special place, designed to attract citizens and make them enjoy the experience while learning about their rights and obligations.

“We are determined to raise awareness about the importance of upholding democratic values ​​such as human rights, inclusion and respect for the different.

“Since those values ​​are a collective construction, we must make sure to reach as many people as possible. For this, the museum will be free access and thereby a big step towards social justice will be given.

“We are delighted being a founding member of SJAM. This partnership will facilitate interaction between Museo de la Democracia and other institutions with similar profiles. Sharing experiences and helping each other to find better ways to achieve goals, will greatly benefit our communities.

“Furthermore, the Alliance means to us an extraordinary opportunity for adding our flag to international efforts for social justice.”

This week lots of NML staff have been busy at the UK Museums Association’s annual conference, held this year in Liverpool. We are told this was the biggest ever

MA conference (and it’s been around for more then 100 years!) and possibly the best, with lots of topical sessions.

MA President David Anderson, who is Director General of National Museum Wales and host to the 2014 conference in Cardiff, said that the Liverpool conference:

“Was the most successful MA conference ever – or at least that I have attended. The programme had real bite, was intensely topical, and gave space for debate for many of the most pressing issues that the museum sector is currently facing. It was also a great success in terms of numbers and national profile. Everyone that I spoke to was buzzing with enthusiasm, and that included overseas delegates.”

Among my favourite moments were the launch of the Social Justice Alliance of Museums (see forthcoming blog) and presentations by Judith Vandervelde of the Jewish Museum and Phil Sayers (artist), both of whom were addressing the subject of emotion in museums.

Better still were the answers to the Great Scousetastic Quiz questions from a multi-ethnic Balkan team; their answers bore little relation to the questions, eg “The Ottoman Empire Strikes Back”, “The Balkan Who Loved Me” and “Sarajevo Rangers” (no, me neither), but they seemed to have fun putting traditional Balkan tensions behind them!

I have been involved in a lot of international activity recently, as the rest of the world seeks advice from National Museums Liverpool (NML) about how to run successful modern museums.

Last week I was in Tonsberg, Norway, speaking to museum professionals and elected politicians, including the Mayors of Tonsberg and of Vestfold County, where they run a joint museum service that is funded by a number of municipalities (Vestfold County Museum pictured above). A highlight was when I was hailed as a “great warrior from Liverpool” by a ‘Viking’ skald, who spoke of the fact that I am destined never to walk alone (this last, improvised reference received a huge cheer from 100 Norwegians).

This week I was in Kosovo, where the business of museums is very much tied up with identity, ethnicity and belief. I was asked to talk there about museums and human rights. It was very humbling to discuss such matters with Albanians, Bosnians, Macedonians, Montenegrans and Serbs, as well as Kosovans, about how cultural activity can contribute to the processes of peace and reconciliation, in a nation still recovering from the most violent of conflicts, where international sex trafficking is widespread, and where the backdrop is of KFOR (Kosovo Force) soldiers driving past at night in armoured vehicles

Also this week we welcomed to Liverpool delegations from Lithuania and Finland. The Lithuanians were from the President of Lithuania’s office in Vilnius, and the Finns (museum staff and politicians) were from Helsinki, where they are developing a new city museum. Both groups were especially interested in how the Museum of Liverpool works.

These international dialogues show that NML exerts huge influence throughout the museum world, but also help ensure that we stay at the top of our game, notwithstanding the budget reductions that we are experiencing.

Here in the web team we are dead chuffed that our recently redesigned website has been shortlisted for the UK Public Sector Communications Awards 2013. Yay!

We worked hard to try and improve the website, which needed to be easier to use, as well as better looking. We worked particularly hard to make our “What’s on” listings more straightforward (and brighter and shinier!) and we think it is loads better.

We hope it works for you. If you’ve got any comments about the website, good or bad, or any ideas for how to make it even better, we’d love to know. Go on, tell us what you think!

]]>http://blog.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/2013/10/website-shortlisted-for-award/feed/0Tell us what you think of our new website and win free goodies!http://blog.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/2013/08/tell-us-what-you-think-of-our-new-website-and-win-free-goodies/
http://blog.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/2013/08/tell-us-what-you-think-of-our-new-website-and-win-free-goodies/#commentsTue, 27 Aug 2013 10:42:01 +0000http://blog.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/?p=2686

Our new website design

I’m very excited as myself and the web team have been working with our in-house technical staff and we’ve now completed the finishing touches to our brand new website design.

We’ve had a bit of a ‘soft launch’ over the last couple of months as we gradually put more and more of the design live and now we’re ready to tell the world about it!

If you are new to our website then you can see what it used to look like below – it really needed some TLC! We started from scratch with the aim to create a website design that was going to serve our visitors (that’s you!) better.

The talented team at Error Creative Studio (local designers/developers) have made our new website design bigger and brighter, with lots of large images to really show off our museums and galleries and all they have to offer.

We also wanted to bring the site right up to date, so we made sure that you can look at the whole site on mobile and tablet devices, as well as on desktop computers. We’ve also made it easy for you to find our social media streams and the latest videos and blog posts too.

Tell us what you think!

We’d love to know what you think of the new website design and if you think it brings our museums and galleries to life online.

The school holidays are here. Six idyllic weeks with your angelic little ones to look forward to… here’s our guide to making the most of the summer, even when their halos slip a little:

Rule 1) Don’t panic.

Rule 2) Put down that remote and step away from the games consoles. Leave the house whenever you can – there’s a world of pirates and Vikings, bhangra and crafts on hand to beat the boredom! Check out our events programme here.

Rule 3) Remember the best things in life are free. Janet and Luther knew what they were talking about. All our events and activities are totally free, including the only free planetarium in the country.

Rule 4) Get some fresh air. Trips to the park, rambles in the forest and visits to the beach are what summer holidays are all about. Why not climb aboard the Edmund Gardner, bring your teddy to one of our picnics or even meet some real-life sniffer dogs?

Rule 5) Educational doesn’t mean boring. Who hasn’t tried 100 different ways to hide secret vegetables in their child’s tea? Sometimes a bit of mild deception is no bad thing. Shhh don’t tell them but our workshops and activities are concealing some really useful stuff beneath all that fun…

Rule 6) The recent heatwave has spoilt us but when the great British weather returns to form and the heavens relentlessly open, ignore Rules 2 and 4 and log on to our kids’ website to see if you can escape the mummy’s tomb or make your own shadow puppet.

Rule 7) Step away from the golden arches and treat your kids to a proper lunch. Our Sea Urchins menu at the Maritime Dining Rooms will refuel hungry explorers or why not pretend you’re in first class on a great ocean liner and treat your little lords and ladies to a traditional afternoon tea.

Museums are being urged by Government to raise money from all possible sources to cope with the cuts that are being made in public funding. But how realistic is it that public funding can be replaced by money from elsewhere?How much money do you think National Museums Liverpool receives per year in our donations boxes from our 3million+ visitors? The answer last year was £207k (about 7p per visitor), about 1% of our costs.

And that is a lot more than just a few years ago: in 2006/7 we raised less than £40k from about 2 million visitors (about 2p per visitor). The pattern is of growing numbers of visitors, each giving us more in our donations boxes.

Unfortunately, most people don’t give us anything! We have tried to persuade our visitors that we need cash to help keep up our standards, but most probably think they’ve already paid for the museums through their taxes. In which case, we need to inform visitors that income from taxes is plummeting, and we need donations in our boxes to help plug the gaps.

So if you are a NML visitor, please help us keep going by helping fill our donations boxes!

]]>http://blog.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/2013/07/how-much-does-it-cost/feed/0The important work of the Social Justice Alliance of Museumshttp://blog.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/2013/07/the-important-work-of-the-social-justice-alliance-of-museums/
http://blog.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/2013/07/the-important-work-of-the-social-justice-alliance-of-museums/#commentsMon, 15 Jul 2013 10:32:44 +0000http://blog.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/?p=2276

I have been working on setting up the Social Justice Alliance of Museums (SJAM) – an international network of museums and related bodies that believe in the concept of social justice.

In times of real pressure on public funding there is a threat that the progress many museums have made towards a more democratic future will be stopped in its tracks as funding cuts bite and as traditional museum values of exclusivity and elitism are promoted as the only way forwards. The aim of SJAM is to recruit museums, related bodies and individuals to sign up to a charter for social justice and to campaign for and promote best practice. It is a good time for everyone who believes in the concept of social justice to find a voice, collectively. The hope is that SJAM will find ways to work together in the pursuit of social justice and to support each other’s efforts.

So far we have members in Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands and New Zealand, as well as from all over the UK, and we have barely begun recruiting yet. We will launch SJAM at the MA Annual Conference in Liverpool on 11/12 November this year.